The cold snow came to an end, and spring wind took its place.
Without realising it, winter had already pa.s.sed, and the days of spring arrived.
The frozen mountain creek began to flow again. The ice cones under the eaves of bamboo buildings and trees were sparkling and translucent, dripping water in the sunlight.
In the morning, the wine tavern was quite empty, there were not many drinkers.
Fang Yuan sat inside at the seat near the window. According to his request, the surrounding was covered by wooden plank screens, creating a small room for him.
A gust of wind blew in from the window, and the fresh and fragrant smell of the earth was wedged between the air, letting people who smelled it feel carefree and pleased.
Jiang Ya sat opposite Fang Yuan, his face full of smiles.
"These are the primeval stones this time, please confirm it." He took out four money bags, placing them on the table and pushing it towards Fang Yuan.
What was inside the money bag was naturally primeval stones.
Fang Yuan did not open them one by one, but checked their weight by holding them in his hand.
He had over a hundred years of experience making deals and transactions, so he could easily tell the number of primeval stones in his hands. One less and he could immediately tell.
This was nothing special, to be honest.
On Earth, there was an oil seller who placed a coin on the bottleneck and dripped oil inside, where the oil dripped in a line and entered the bottle through the tiny hole without any spillage. There was another divine shooter who could shoot tree leaves at 100% accuracy from a hundred meters away. There was also a butcher who worked for many years, using his hands to check the weight, he could tell their exact weight and when scaled, was exactly as he said.
How to train such a skill?
Nothing else but ‘practise makes perfect’!
Acc.u.mulation of experience, when enough, can stir up a miracle.
After his rebirth, this kind of experience was naturally brought over as well. Fang Yuan used his hand to check, and on finding no problems, he then took out a small cloth bag and gave it to Jiang Ya.
Jiang Ya received it with both hands and opened the bag, checking the quant.i.ty carefully.
Although Fang Yuan had nine vitality leaves in his possession, he did not plan to sell it himself. If it was Gu Yue Dong Tu, he would rather do this to sustain his social relationships and increase his influence.
But Fang Yuan was reluctant to do this. It wasted too much time and effort. Thus, he sold them all to Jiang Ya who was a shop owner, so Jiang Ya could sell the Rank one healing gra.s.s Gu to the clansmen.
Jiang Ya is Jiang He’s brother, and when Fang Yuan was searching for the Liquor worm, they met before. His brother was even Fang Yuan’s half-alliance mate, thus, having him take over the transaction and sell to the clan, it was a reliable method.
"One, two, three… nine. Indeed, it is nine vitality leaves." Jiang Ya counted three times before closing the bag and carefully keeping the bag close to his body.
Next, he raised his cup, toasting to Fang Yuan. "Lord Fang Yuan, happy doing business with you, let me toast you!"
His gaze towards Fang Yuan carried deep admiration, even turning into a hint of jealousy.
A year ago, when it was also spring. The first time he met Fang Yuan, the latter was still a student at the academy, not even having the rights to wear the Gu Master’s battle attire.
But now, Fang Yuan was not only wearing battle attire, his belt was also red colour, and a square steel piece in the center of the belt — a Rank two Gu Master!
But he himself was still a Rank one, carrying a green coloured belt.
Nevermind that, what made him jealous was, after getting the inheritance, Fang Yuan turned from a pauper into a tyc.o.o.n.
He owned the wine tavern, bamboo buildings as well as the nine leaf vitality gra.s.s. It was all fortune that Jiang Ya would never be able to earn throughout his lifetime!
But, Jiang Ya did not dare to show his deep emotion of jealousy.
Fang Yuan sold the vitality leaves to him and allowed him to earn the difference in price. Fang Yuan is already his money tree, and Jiang Ya no longer dared to offend this junior.
"Sigh, comparing among people is odious….." Jiang Ya held the cup. His face was full of smiles, but in his heart he was sighing deeply.
Fang Yuan raised his cup and drank it in one shot.
Jiang Ya’s expression although secretive, with Fang Yuan’s old fox wits, how could he not tell?
Fang Yuan did not put it to heart, for if Jiang Ya was not jealous, it showed that he had much greater heart, and that would make Fang Yuan think more highly of him.
But he stared at Fang Yuan’s small fortune and got jealous, this showed how little his world was, insignificant. Drinking with him was solely because he still had some value to exploit.
Jiang Ya put down the cup, excitedly saying, "The clan’s vitality leaves are sold at fifty-five primeval stones a piece. I followed your instructions and only sold our gra.s.s Gu at fifty primeval stones, and the demand is overwhelming! Lord, why don’t you make more leaves daily, that way we can earn much more!"
Fang Yuan listened and slowly shook his head, rejecting outright, "No, creating nine leaves is already my limit, it is already wasting much of my cultivating time."
This was the difference between Fang Yuan and a mere frog like Jiang Ya.
In Fang Yuan’s perspective, primeval stones were just a cultivating resource, a tool. It is all for his cultivating needs. But Jiang Ya treated primeval stones as his life goal, thus he cultivates in order to earn more primeval stones.
But even if Fang Yuan only made nine leaves a day, he could earn four hundred primeval stones daily, and with the acc.u.mulation, the fortune in his hands also grew to an amazing level.
Seeing Fang Yuan’s rejection, Jiang Ya did not dare to push his luck, only moving his lips in pity, then continuing to pour wine for Fang Yuan enthusiastically, and then for himself.
"Indeed." He exclaimed, "Lord has such great fortune, you do not have to waste time and effort daily. In my opinion, why does lord have to stay in that poor old rented flat? Why don’t you empty out a bamboo building and stay there yourself. Then marrying a beautiful wife, and having seven or eight family servants to take care of you. That is truly the dream life. Hehe."
Fang Yuan laughed lightly, not saying anything.
How could a farmer understand the ambitions of the conqueror!
He turned around, looking outside the window.
House after house, the bamboo roofs had remnant snow, bathing under the bright and beautiful light of spring. Faraway was a willow tree, the branches of yellow-green soft leaves rolling down, gently swishing in the soft spring breeze.
Fang Yuan’s gaze was slightly blank as he thought about his current predicament.
After solving the problem of Fang Zheng, the family a.s.set could be said to be in the bag.
The White Jade Gu and Moonglow Gu were successfully refined, he now covered attack and defense. What came next was the Liquor worm.
But the Liquor worm was troublesome. To refine the Four Flavour Liquor worm, he needed a second Liquor worm, as well as sweet, sour, bitter and spicy — four types of wine. These things, he had no idea where to get.
"I definitely have to refine the Liquor worm. Without it, my progress will be slower by at least half. But to refine the Four Flavour Liquor worm, I will need to wait for the caravan and borrow that chance to showcase my White Jade Gu. That way, I can show off my true fighting strength and stop hiding my abilities."
Fang Yuan had the Moonglow Gu and the White Jade Gu. Together with his five hundred years of combat experience, he was stronger than most Rank two Gu Masters.
Slightly famous group leaders like sickly snake Jiao San, if fighting one on one with Fang Yuan, might not be his match.
But against Chi Shan, Mo Yan and Qing Shu, Fang Yuan was still weaker.
One was insufficient cultivation level, Fang Yuan was only a Rank two initial stage, but they were upper or even peak stage. Next was the lack of strong Gu worms. Fang Yuan only had two battle Gu worms, but they all had at least three and even hidden trump cards.
Among the same age group, Fang Zheng, Mo Bei and Chi Cheng were already showing their dominance, no doubt.
Especially Fang Zheng, now that he had obtained the Rank two Moon Raiment, he already has the ability to fight with Fang Yuan. As time pa.s.ses, his cultivation level will get higher and eventually he will leave Fang Yuan in the dust.
Unless Fang Yuan can fuse the Four Flavour Liquor worm and maintain the same cultivating speed as Fang Zheng.
As for the higher ranks, those Rank three or Rank four Gu Masters.
To Fang Yuan, battle results aside, even keeping his life is a difficult thing, not to mention challenging a higher rank.
Transcending rank was very difficult, one was that Fang Yuan did not have trump cards, and two he does not have talent. Even with his rich fighting experience, a woman cannot cook without rice, without a strong Gu worm, his experience cannot display their worth.
"If I can successfully fuse the Four Flavour Liquor worm, my cultivating speed will be satisfactory. But I also have to replenish my Gu worms. Defense I have White Jade Gu, offense I have Moonglow Gu, healing I have nine leaf vitality gra.s.s, but I need a movement-type and recon-type Gu, these two although are support types, they can cover up my weakness and at least triplefold my fighting strength!" Fang Yuan pondered.
He did not need to learn step by step, with his rich life experience, he already knew the direction to take.
Beside him, Jiang Ya’s voice came, "I heard, recently someone is finding trouble with you, lord? Purposely finding trouble at your bamboo building and wine tavern?"
Fang Yuan frowned, his train of thoughts were broken.
But Jiang Ya was right.
Fang Yuan had investigated, this was his uncle Gu Yue Dong Tu’s act.
After his uncle was warned by Gu Yue Qing Shu, he did not dare to use Fang Zheng to instigate trouble anymore. But after waiting for a while, the indignance and anger in his heart rose, and using his relationships, he got a few Gu Masters to find trouble at Fang Yuan’s places.
People who do business hate these kinds of problems.
Thus recently, he had been finding time to look after the locations.
"Owner, someone is finding trouble again." At this time, a clerk carried a scared expression and walked towards Fang Yuan.
"Oh?" Fang Yuan’s brows raised, not expecting to encounter this immediately.
Not waiting for Fang Yuan to react, Jiang Ya stood up abruptly, eagerly saying, "Wait a moment lord, let me go see."
He walked out of the part.i.tion, then came back almost immediately.
"It is Gu Yue Man Shi!" Jiang Ya’s expression was pale, suppressing his voice. His gaze revealed shocked and worry.
Gu Yue Man Shi?
Fang Yuan did things carefully and knew the importance of information. During this period, he had gotten the information of all the Rank two Gu Masters in the clan, and memorised most of them.
Gu Yue Man Shi is a slightly famous Gu Master, specializing in defense and having a great strength, being the Man Shi group’s leader. In terms of fame, he was higher than Jiao San by a little.
Bam!
Smashing sound came from outside.
Thereafter, a coa.r.s.e and arrogant voice resounded, "Blah, what sort of wine is this? Tastes like horses.h.i.t, you dare sell this to me?"
"Hmph!" Fang Yuan’s gaze shone with cold light as he stood up.